"I appreciate your suggestion, Darcy, but we'd best decide right now," you say.
"I wouldn't want us to waste Taylor's time on simple administrative tasks we can finish together," Darcy says.
"That may be best." Taylor checks his modernist watch. "I am close to being late for my next meeting."
"I absolutely respect your time, Taylor," you say. "But Repro's name is on this symposium. I don't want us to proceed without your immediate and direct input, so we're all putting together the kind of symposium that Repro can be proud of."
"That's a little over-the-top, even for you," Darcy mutters.
"But it's sensible." Taylor sits back down. "I did have thoughts about what we should do before the next meeting."
Taylor rattles off a list of to-dos: nail down the venue, identify session chairs, and draft a full schedule for the symposium. It's a daunting list of items to get done in a week. But you argued for him helping make the to-do list, so you can't easily push back against it.
Once you're done, Taylor sweeps his notebook back into his messenger bag. "Oh, before I go, one last thing. While I'll copy both of you on all emails, it's easiest for me to have one immediate point of contact. Bomomsay Clestenrogo, I'd like you to take point. That's no reflection on you, Darcy. It's for expediency."
"I wouldn't want to get in the way of expediency," Darcy says. "Speaking of, let me walk you back to the lobby."
"If you must," Taylor says, and you give a cheer inside your head. Darcy will use the walk to try to curry favor, but Taylor doesn't strike you as the kind of person to change his mind easily. You're the one who'll work most closely with him.
You're left by yourself in the conference room to take stock of the day. Even though you worked on your lab this morning and have the potential to make great strides on the service component of tenure thanks to Taylor, you made no progress on your class or the paper you're supposed to review. Worse, working with Taylor is a double-edged sword. You've signed yourself up for a tremendous amount of symposium work. To top it all off, you'll have meetings with Kayla King that you'll have to fit into your schedule along with all the rest of your work.
You take slow, deep breaths until your heartbeat stops racing. It's going to be a long fall semester.
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